From the time that wagon trails cut across the eastern Kansas prairie, the place that was to become Mission was vital. In this northeast Johnson County town flowed springs that refreshed travelers heading west for land or gold. Early residential developers used the free, fresh water as an inducement to home buyers.
In 1926 Mission Hills Acres opened as a rural subdivision of 245 lots. By 1928, five local businesses had been established to service the new residents. In 1938 the postal district recommended shortening the area's name to Mission, and in 1951 Mission was incorporated.
Business has flourished in this town of about 2.75 square miles along Shawnee Mission Parkway east of Metcalf/Highway 169 and south of I-35. "Big enough to serve you and small enough to want to" is the town's unofficial slogan. Its daytime population rises to about 50,000, expanded by people who work and shop in the more than 600 businesses with Mission addresses.
The business base includes telecommunications, advertising agencies, car dealerships and restaurants. Johnson Drive, the central commercial strip, offers shoppers a wonderful assortment of small businesses, everything from a German butcher shop to hometown hardware and a health food grocer. The Shawnee Mission main post office and the northeast branch of Johnson County offices are located in Mission.
At a 2002 citizen "visioning" session, residents vowed to maintain that business district as a pedestrian-friendly area of boutique shops, and in August 2003 the Mission Business Development Committee was formed to oversee the area's ongoing revitalization.
In 2006, work began on the East Gateway project, a mixed-use project at the east entrance into the city at Shawnee Mission Parkway and roe Boulevard. The Rock Creek Floodplain Control Project, also begun in 2006, promises to add to the revitalization of the downtown district.
Mission's residential neighborhoods offer good variety: modest ranches and split levels, rambling ranch homes on big lots, condominiums and apartments. The good recreational choices include an outdoor municipal swimming pool, seven parks and an 80,000-square-foot community center with indoor pool, two gymnasiums, racquetball courts, classrooms, meeting areas and workout rooms.
Access to parts north and south is good from Interstates 35 and 635, and Shawnee Mission Parkway provides a quick and direct route to the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.
